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Tour Sarah Susanka's Newest Right-Sized House
Get ideas for neighbor-friendly, efficient home design from best-selling author's latest project near Chicago
Houzz Contributor. My name is Bud Dietrich and I am an architect located in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I am licensed to practice architecture in Illinois, Florida, New Jersey & Wisconsin and I am a certificate holder from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Since 1996 I have worked from my home office and provide full architectural services exclusively to the single family residential market. My passion is to transform my clients' houses into their homes. I strive to have the "new" home accommodate my clients' lives without fighting them at every junction. I look to add curb appeal to encourage a beautiful streetscape. And I design any addition to look and feel like it has always been there.
Our projects have won numerous design awards as well as having...
Houzz Contributor. My name is Bud Dietrich and I am an architect located... More »
Sarah Susanka, architect and best-selling author of the "Not So Big House" books, has just finished her newest example of building a right-sized home.
The home, in the School Street neighborhood of Libertyville, Ill., is 2,450 square feet on two floors and sits on a small and narrow lot, 29 feet wide by 100 feet long. The home's interior spaces are lined up in a row; each has a west-facing window that lets in plenty of sunshine on cold winter days.
This house is part of the School Street Project, a development that will include both single-family homes and the old School Street school building converted to condominiums. The development is an example of New Urbanism brought to an existing small town. It is within walking distance of schools, houses of worship, the town's Main Street and the commuter rail station for those working in Chicago.
The home, in the School Street neighborhood of Libertyville, Ill., is 2,450 square feet on two floors and sits on a small and narrow lot, 29 feet wide by 100 feet long. The home's interior spaces are lined up in a row; each has a west-facing window that lets in plenty of sunshine on cold winter days.
This house is part of the School Street Project, a development that will include both single-family homes and the old School Street school building converted to condominiums. The development is an example of New Urbanism brought to an existing small town. It is within walking distance of schools, houses of worship, the town's Main Street and the commuter rail station for those working in Chicago.
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| The home's Arts and Crafts aesthetic helps it fit into its surroundings. And the front porch gives back to the neighborhood, allowing the home to engage in the public sphere. |
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The front porch, large enough for a table and chairs, aligns with the other porches in the neighborhood. Spaces like this promote friendly neighbors and safe neighborhoods.
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| The front door is actually at the side. This enables a more open layout. The entry axis and circulation axis along the spine of the house provide the interior with a clear organizing principle. |
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| The living room, to the left after you enter the house, is made special and spacious with a raised ceiling that incorporates indirect lighting. The screen wall keeps the room open to the stairs while providing enough of a barrier to ensure the space has its own integrity. In the view down the hall, a piece of artwork is displayed in a lighted niche. |
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To the right of the entry, toward the street side of the house, are the kitchen and dining areas. These rooms are open to each other yet maintain their own spatial integrity through the use of ceilings, walls and trim.
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| A reading area is visible from and open to the living room. |
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| The light from the large west-facing window of the reading area illuminates the core of the house, bringing natural light to the living room. The custom muntin pattern makes the window all the more special. |
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| The kitchen is visible from the entry area and circulation spine. A unique feature of the layout is the kitchen's location at the front of the home, ideal for preparing a snack while watching for the kids to make their way home from school. Also, the front of the house receives the most sunlight so having the kitchen here gives this heavily used space a lot of natural light. |
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| The organized circulation of the home is evident in this view. |
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A backsplash is one of the places you may want to splurge on when constructing a new house or remodeling a kitchen. It's one of those items you see every day — many times a day — so it should be meaningful and interesting.
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| This is the view entering the house from the garage. This mudroom provides plenty of storage for coats, boots and backpacks, and there's a desk for organizing the family's activities and information. Toward the front of the house, we can see the stairs, living room and kitchen. |
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The stair hall is three stories tall and gets plenty of natural light deep into the core of the home. When open, the windows at the top provide natural ventilation to the home, especially helpful on hot summer days.
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Built-in display spaces and niches make journeying up and down the stairs delightful.
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| At the top of the stairs is a laundry/crafts room. This room provides plenty of storage space and counters for folding. A sink provides a handy cleanup spot for crafts and home projects. |
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| The master bedroom at the front of the house, incorporates a window seat and taller ceiling for light and spaciousness. The simple, painted trim gives the room a tailored feel. |
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| Unlike many houses that have the bedroom closets built at the interior walls, the closets in this child's bedroom flank the window so a built-in window seat can be incorporated into the room. |
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The same attention to detail is found in the bathrooms.
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| An outdoor living space accessed from the second floor is above the garage and back end of the first floor. This location provides a quiet and secure place for children to play and for outdoor parties. |
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| The plans show how the home's linear plan of one room deep spaces is positioned to gather as much light as possible. This approach allows some passive heating of the house during those cold Illinois winters reduces the home's carbon footprint and saves on energy bills. More: 10 Elements of the Just-Right House New Urbanism in Colorado |
Ideabook updated on Nov. 29, 2011.
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She did a nice job of creating a beautiful, integrated home for the School Street Neighborhood Project. A beauty to behold and live in.
When I was first considering writing the book that became The Not So Big House, back in 1998, I wanted to be able to get the attention and interest not only of those already convinced that less is more, but also of people who were building 5,000 sf houses and up, and I knew they would never buy a book called "The Small House Book". The Not So Big title came to me in a moment of inspiration, and I knew this would allow me to speak to a much larger part of the market, and to people of all walks of life.
If you're interested in the ideas put forward in my books and in this showhouse, I hope you'll stay tuned. There are smaller versions in the pipeline. With a showhouse it's difficult to make it very small as it doesn't then accommodate the crowds that descend upon it. But I'd love to do one that's maybe 1,500 sf. So we'll see what the future holds. My goal over the next few years is to make more of these houses available at many different sizes and pricepoints. This is the first of that series.
I've included another couple of my own photos that give some additional perspectives. The roof deck turned out especially beautifully. It's located above the garage, and includes a section of green roof.
The ceiling and walls above the upper trim band is SW 7035--Aesthetic White
The wall color typically below the trim band is SW 7527--Nantucket Dune
Then there are a series of feature wall colors as follows:
Accent art niches are either SW 7584--Red Theatre
or SW 7729--Edamame (green)
Behind bookshelves and a few other spots SW 7705--Wheat Penny (rusty brown)
Main Level Bath below wainscot – SW 7746 ‘Rushing River’
Stair Wall – SW 7680 ‘Langard’
Stair Ceiling - SW7717 ‘Ligonier Tan’
Kids bath below wainscott – SW 7715 ‘Pottery Urn’
Master Suite – SW 7635 ‘Palisade’
Accent wall– Bedroom #1 – SW 7603--Poolhouse
Accent wall--Bedroom #2 -- SW 7729--Edamame
I hope this helps.
I want to know what the room in front of the stairs is for?!? office?!?
Thanks very much!
Love the laundry craft space... the reading nook and the mudroom area.
Sarah, I am a huge fan of yours and own four of your books. Keep up the great work!
And I do think this is a "small" house. Probably because I know the context and know that the Chicago suburbs, like suburbs all across the America, are littered with houses that are easily double this home's size. From looking at the house and studying the plans, I really do get a sense that the home is sized "right." There's not a room that won't be used and enjoyed. And that, regardless of size, is what makes a house a home.
http://www.cnu.org/cnu-salons/2011/11/achieving-livability-libertyville
Sarah, I am a huge fan of yours - love all your books, and have used a lot of your tips in my own renovations. Keep up the great work!